This Trust of Mine (14 page)

"Madison,
I'm-"

"Don't
Kayla, we're fine."

I nodded as
I stood up on my tiptoes to give him a hug. "Thanks or today cowboy."

"Anytime,
pretty girl. See ya later."

I gave a
small dazed wave, as Cami approached me. "What was that all about?"

"Who cares,
as long as he says goodbye to me like that from now on, I'll be good."

We both went
into the house laughing as the growl of Madison's truck disappeared down the drive.

****

I helped
Cami get ready for her big "meet the parents" moment for at least three
hours. I had never met Glenn's family before, but judging by the house I picked
Joey up from every day and his response to the whole ordeal outside of school
today, I'm gonna guess his parents aren't as easy going as their children.

I pulled the
curling iron out of the last strand of hair and stood back smiling. "You
look amazing Cam."

"Are
you sure?"

I let her
borrow my yellow and white striped sundress and a pair of beige Steve Madden wedges
that made her at least five feet four inches now. "I'm positive. Don't be
so nervous, they're just parents. What's the worst that could happen?"

Cami rolled
her eyes at me and began fidgeting with the straps of the dress. I just shook
my head and went and sat on my bed. I threw myself back against the mattress, arms
splayed out.

"What
are you doing?"

"What
do you mean?" I sneered as I closed my eyes.

"With
Madison, what are you doing with Madison? Why don't you just tell him how you
feel?"

I propped
myself up on my elbows. "I can't Cami, just leave it alone, please."

"I
don't understand you guys. You love him, and he clearly loves you. Why not just
go for it? God, I couldn't imagine not telling Glenn how I felt about him. It
was liberating. It just sucks that I can't be with him in the same state for
another year."

"Yeah,
but you guys will make it work."

"I
know, it just sucks. How am I supposed to trust him, when I'm hundreds of miles
away?"

I couldn't
help the laughter that came rushing out of me. "Are you seriously asking
me?"

"I'm
sorry hun. I forgot."

"Really,
it's okay. We'll get through it. Anyway, you all ready to go?"

"Yep,
how do I look?"

"Like a
million bucks." I smiled. "Tell Joey I said hey."

Cami stopped
midstride to my bedroom door. "Speaking of which, what's going on
there?"

My eyebrows
pulled together in confusion. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Oh you
know exactly what I mean. You can't tell me you haven't noticed how hot that
boy is. He is sex on a stick. Man, if I wasn't dating his older brother and if
he had tattoos, I would be all over that hot piece of man."

I playfully
shoved her out of my way. "Shut up, it's not like that."

"Yeah,
yeah, we all heard the friends only talk and trust me when I say, that boy
wants more than friendship with you."

"God, I
wish everybody would just leave that shit alone."

"Kayla
Anne, watch your mouth."

"Sorry
Gran." I looked back at Cami coming down the stairs behind me with an
angry face.

"Sorry."
She whispered.

When we
reached the bottom step, both my grandparents turned to look at Cami. "Oh
honey, you look amazin'. If that snooty family don't like ya, we'll take
ya." My grandmomma giggled before taking Cami's hands into her own.
"Just remember, no man is worth keepin' if his family can't accept ya for who
ya are. Remember that honey. Oh, and have a good time."

"Thanks,
Mrs. James. I'll see you all a little bit later."

We all gave
a wave in Cami's direction before I politely excused myself and headed out the
back door. When I got to the top of the hill and spotted the empty patch of
land below the overgrown willow tree, I let out a sigh of relief. I needed some
time to myself and being around Madison lately seemed to cloud my judgment,
more than I cared for. I sat back against the old weathered tree stump closing
my eyes, and letting the worries from today wash away. I was determined to make
this whole friends thing work with him, if it was the last thing I did.

Madison

After I was
done pacing a nice worn line in the carpet of my room, I finally made my way
out to the back porch. I had been waiting for almost an hour for my
grandparents to return, but I had yet to hear anything from them. It wasn't
like my grandfather to tell me to be home for dinner, and then not be here. I
was starting to get worried and since neither one of them had a cell phone, I
decided to just sit in one of the rocking chairs and wait.

I heard the
door crack open about a half hour later and I practically jumped out of my
chair out back, running towards the echoing sounds of my grandparent's voices
in the foyer. When I caught sight of them still standing there, I noticed my
grams brushing away a few stray tears. I quickly hid on the other side of the
archway that led into the kitchen. I stood listening to her sobbing before my
grandfather's voice broke through her crying.

"It's
gonna be okay dear. I promise you, we will make sure everything is in order
before anything happens. Dr. Tompkins even said I still have a good two or
three months. Now I know it's not a lot, but it's enough time to get things in
order. Now quiet your cryin' before Madison hears ya. I'm not ready to let him
know."

My mouth
went dry and the stray tear that was runnin' down my cheek seared the skin
below. If I had just heard them correctly, my grandfather only had a few months
left to live? How could they not have told me this sooner? How could they let
me go off to school, possibly knowing what might happen?

Anger took
over and I suddenly needed to get out of there. I quickly took off out the back
door before either one of them could catch sight of me. I kept running until I
was in the safety of that open spread of land. I bent over with my hands on my
knees, tryin' to catch my breath as I held back my unshed tears. I hadn't
noticed her there, until I felt her smooth cool skin against my arm. I looked
up into her worried eyes and just lost it. I wrapped my arms around her body
and let my sobs take over.

Eventually
the tears stopped and the worry faded, leaving just the two of us. I looked up
into her eyes and saw the worry and care that sat behind them.

"I'm
sorry." I whispered behind her ear as I brought her into a deep hug.

"For
what? You never have to be sorry with me."

I simply
nodded and pulled her in deeper. I couldn't explain what was going on just yet,
especially to her after everything we were dealing with between us, but soon.
For now, I just needed her to hold me close. If she only knew that everything
else in my world was falling apart, everything besides her.

"What
are you doin' out here?"

"Me? I
just needed some alone time. It can get pretty suffocating in there at
times." She replied with a smile as she pointed towards her house.
"Madison, are you okay?"

I sat back
away from Kayla, as I took in the sad look on her face. I could tell she was
searching my face for some semblance of an answer. As much as I wanted to shout
from the rooftops how much I love her and want to be with her, I couldn't help
but wonder if all of this was happening the way it was, for a reason. Maybe
right now, all I needed was a friend. Someone who I knew, no matter what, I
could always depend on, without having to worry about how our relationship
might be affected. "Yeah, I'm okay." After that I just sat there with
her in silence, wondering how I was goin' to get through the next couple of
months.

"Did
Cami get off to dinner with Glenn okay?"

"Yeah,
she was nervous. Are his parents really as bad as Joey says?"

"They
can be." I pushed some dirt around aimlessly with a stick tryin' not to
make eye contact with her. "I mean, it just depends. I don't think Cami
has anything to worry about though."

I watched
her out of the corner of my eye as she nodded her head in agreement. I knew
what I was doing, but I couldn't help it. I wasn't ready to let her all the way
in. I checked the time on my phone realizing that I had been out here for quite
some time. It was nine thirty and I knew if I didn't get my ass back to the
house, my grandfather would have it on a platter.

"Hey, I
gotta get goin'. I'll talk to you soon I'm sure."

"Okay.

I gave her a
halfhearted smile and quickly placed a small kiss to her cheek, before taking
off in the direction of my house.

"Hey, Madison?"

"Yeah?"
I shouted back.

"If you
need to talk, I'm always around. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks
Kayla." It sounded short and snide, but now just wasn't the time.

All the lights
were still on and I silently chastised myself, knowing damn good and well that
my grandparents were waitin' up for me. When the screen door creaked open, my
grandfather's voice bellowed throughout the entire house.

"Where
the hell have you been boy? I told you to be here for dinner."

I thought
about just letting him know what I had heard, but changed my mind when I took
in the angry look on his face. I wanted to tell him off right there. I wanted
to lay into him, letting him know that I knew there was no dinner, or at least
there wasn't when I had gotten here. But I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to
say anything. There had to be a reason he hadn't told me yet, and I was willing
to give him the time to tell me on his own.

"I'm
sorry sir. I lost track of time." I sat in the chair across from him when
I realized that dinner still hadn't been made and my grams was nowhere to be
found. "Where's grandma?"

"Your
grandmother turned in early. She wasn't feelin' well. I reckon I should be off
to bed now that I know you're safe. Sleep well son. We'll see ya in the
mornin'."

"K."
It was all I could think to say as my grandfather made his way upstairs.

I watched
him disappear into his room, before I decided to head out and find somethin' to
do. I knew what I wanted to do, but I wanted and what I should be doin' seemed
to be two different things lately.

I put my
truck in drive and slowly made my way to the end of the drive, just as I caught
sight of Kayla at the end of her drive. I was just about to turn in her direction,
taking it as a sign from god that I should be hangin' out with her instead of
getting into trouble, when I saw headlights pull up beside her. I couldn't tell
who was in the driver seat from this distance and with the glare from the
headlights, so I decided to turn mine off and wait. I sat back and waited as
the headlights grew closer with every passing second. Finally, just as they
passed right in front of me, I caught sight of who it was that Kayla was taking
off with, Joey Green.

Damn it! Why
couldn't that damn kid ever take a fuckin' hint? Even when we were younger he
couldn't take a hint. We used to think of everything imaginable to get him to
leave us alone, but he never did. He was a persistent little shit, I would give
him that much. But this time, he was fuckin' with somethin' that I wasn't
willin' to let go of. So I did the only thing I could think of, I followed
them.

I followed
Joey and Kayla in his parent's expensive Jaguar all the way into town, when
they finally pulled into the parking lot of the local movie rental place. I
drove past and pulled into one of the parking spaces on the street. I watched
as he walked around to let her out of the passenger side of the car. Stupid
gentlemanly thing to do. Asshole.

I slumped
down in the seat enough to where I thought they couldn't see me, until she
almost did. I slipped all the way down between the steering wheel and the seat
and prayed that she wouldn't walk over. If she did, number one she would
fucking kill me and number two, well, she would fucking kill me. I wasn't good
with either of those options, so I waited a good ten minutes before pulling
myself back up. I swear I was gonna leave, but I just had to see where they
were going next. I knew good and well that her grandma was on my side and wouldn't
let that brown nosing little shit into her house, but that didn't mean Kayla
wouldn't try to sneak him in.

They finally
emerged from the movie store twenty minutes later. The longest twenty minutes
of my life, and then they were driving again. I followed them all the way to the
end of Joey's street. I then decided that now that I knew they were going to be
around Cami and Glenn, I was okay with that. Okay, I wasn't okay with it, but
it was better than those two being alone. Suddenly and unexpectedly, I was
extremely jealous. I wanted to be the one that was with her, watching movies
with her, and holding her. Fuck, I just wanted to be with her, in every aspect.
Unfortunately, I needed to focus on my grandfather right now, so if Joey was
who was there to comfort her then I would have to learn to deal with it. We
were friends after all, or at least that's what we agreed we would be. And
that's
all
I could manage at the
moment.